Mt. St. Helens-We visited today, on VACAY

Yes, vegitation is coming back nicely. Not much, but it's coming around. The wildlife has boomed, such as elk, squirrels, birds, bugs, all of the different types of rodent like creatures, and even fish in the old and new lakes. It's amazing.

If any of you visit our state, seeing St. Helens is a must. Unfortunately Weyerhaeuser has replanted alot of the blast zone areas and you cant see the devastation that was done, but in the 5 mile zone you can. There are not many areas left where you can see trees levelled like toothpicks in a row any more. Maybe Windy Ridge will reveal more realistic like damage than Johnston did.

I'm rambling now, but imagine looking into a densly forested area. There is nothing but shrubs and trees about 5 feet in front of you. This densly forested area is now empty, leaving a 5 mile view of the mountain and it's valley buried 100's of feet in.........well..........the mountain itself. It's truly a humbling experience, and we, Washingtonians, experienced it. I love this state.

I have photos but I forgot to bring home my USB cable, so no pics until next week. I will post pics only if this thread stays alive.

OOOOO! I love looking at Mt Saint Helens on the volcano cam. I check it out every day. I have great respect for what they can do. Thier beauty is facinating though. I look forward to pictures!

Please post even if the thread gets buried. I would love to see and I'm sure others would, too .

I would also love to see pictures!!, nature is amazing

I would love to visit Mt Saint Helens. I can not wait to see the pictures!

I remember my dad visiting there after the initial eruption. He still has the pictures somewhere, as well as a vial or two of volcanic ash. Still amazes me. I would love to see new pictures!

Can't wait to see pics!

We went to the Windy Ridge side today and it was awesome. Much better than the Johnston Ridge. You can't see inside the crater but you can see the true rebuilding of life in Spirit Lake and the surroundings. Fortunately they (Wayerhouser) left it alone and let it all grow on it's own. We spotted a herd of about 50 elk down at the lake and took video of it. You can also see Mt. Ranier and Mt. Adams from there so I did a little documentary on film, what fun.

We were stopped by a guy that is doing a series for the Weather Channel on the vulnerability of people in the wake of volcanos. We agreed to be taped so we may be on TV in January. He said that they did the same thing for New Orleans, but the Hurricane happened before they could air the series. Wierd, huh. The guy said they were gnats ass on, on, what would happen, but unfortunately we will never see it, the video that is. We laughingly told the guy that if Mt Ranier blew before airing, just kiddingly, we would sue as they are jinxing everyone in thier path of story adventures.

And now for some photos.

This shot is on approach to the mountain and shows the massive mudflow down the Toutle River.




An example of the barren landscape that was a moon scape 25 years ago.




At the Johnston Ridge observatory, you can see the 3 humps and the steam that is creating the new lava dome.




This is Coldwater Lake created when the Cold Water creek was dammed up by mud and debris, (far left in picture).




Here you can see the valley that St Helens spilled into.




Approaching Windy Ridge you can see the toothpick trees all over the place.

The next series of photos will show the mountains flow into Spirit Lake. The force was so strong that it pushed the lake up into the hills, dragging all of the dead trees back down. The lake was raised 700ft.









This is an Elk footprint on the trail.




And we found the herd.




Finally we have Mt. Rainier peaking over the hills.





And Mt Adams.

These are BEAUTIFUL pictures! I love seeing how it looks from so many different places. The landscape is beautiful there!

Beautiful pictures - thank you so much for coming back and showing these to us.

Awe inspiring, eh? Let's us know that nature is still in charge on this planet! National Geographic magazine did a 25 year anniversary story on mount St Helens. The huge scale of the eruption is hard to really comprehend.

gnats ass on

Click to expand...

Great new expression for me! Like it!

LOVE THEM! What great pics! It's wonderful to see pics of places I have never been!

Great pictures! It looks just amazing! Thanks for sharing